By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R) from Alabama issued a statement on Wednesday in response to the announcement that the Senate’s Democratic Majority had finally agreed to offer a budget, something that Sen. Sessions had been demanding for almost four years.
Sen. Sessions said, “I am gratified that Chairman Murray has announced that the Senate majority has relented and will offer its first budget in four years. Majority Leader Reid had previously said it would be ‘foolish’ to do a budget and his party cancelled the legally required Senate mark-up in 2011 and 2012—even after former Chairman Conrad had explicitly promised to bring up a budget in committee. I have repeatedly and emphatically called for an end to the Senate Democrats’ brazen legal defiance in this time of national fiscal emergency. I was frankly stunned that our new Chairman would say that Republicans ‘have time and again pulled budget negotiations out of the Budget Committees,’ when Senate Democrats alone control whether committee meetings occur. They alone decided to cancel them. The House, on the other hand, met its legal obligations.”
Sen. Sessions said, “The sooner the majority allows the budget process to move forward, the sooner meaningful debate can occur and the sooner the Senate can at last meet its legal and moral obligations. Secret meetings are an affront to popular democracy. The way forward is for the House and the Senate to both lay out long-term financial plans and present them to the American people. In the past, Democrats refused to do so for political reasons, believing it better to attack the House while having no plan to present, explain, or defend.”
Senator Sessions said that the Congressional Budget Office will present Congress with a new baseline on February 4, 2013 showing how much deficit reduction is needed to balance the budget in 10 years. Sen. Sessions said, “It certainly won’t be easy to put this nation on a sound financial course, but it is essential. Needed fiscal changes will not only prevent an economic nightmare but they will reduce growing poverty, dependency, and joblessness and help more Americans live free and prosperous lives. Republicans are eager to work on this important endeavor and look forward to the commencement of committee activity.”
The legal deadline for the Budget Committee to complete its work on a budget resolution is April 1. The U.S. Federal debt is $16,458 billion and this will likely be the fifth year where the government has spent more than a $trillion than it has taken in. Senator Jefferson “Jeff” Beauregard Sessions III is the Ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee.
